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<title>In the Bivouac of Life by cerealbaths (timelordangel)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23499148">In the Bivouac of Life</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/timelordangel/pseuds/cerealbaths'>cerealbaths (timelordangel)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rhett &amp; Link</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, creative house, oh my god they were quaratined, quarantine fic, rhink</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:34:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,136</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23499148</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/timelordangel/pseuds/cerealbaths</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>They keep trying to catch one another at the creative house. They probably shouldn't.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>77</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>In the Bivouac of Life</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The creative house was allowed to be visited. It was <em>mostly</em> allowed because Link demanded it so when he wanted to go set up his record collection on the wall where the sun didn’t hit during the late afternoon. The second time he visited, however, he went alone. The house was dark and still, gentle and forgiving with isolating silence.</p>
<p>He went after dinner and, upon entry, searched immediately for the sofa blanket he’d brought back when they first rented the place. It was missing, gone from its designated corner of the sectional. Link cocked his head, certain he’d folded it right before he left last week.</p>
<p>He found himself easing into Rhett’s “room”, unclicking the door and poking his head in. The blanket was on Rhett’s meditation cushion, unfolded but draped in a half moon as if it had fallen from Rhett’s shoulders just moments prior.</p>
<p>It felt wrong to enter the room, like entering an older sibling’s room when they’re not home, but a sense of comfort rushed over him at the smell and the mere thought that Rhett had been here recently.</p>
<p>Without really thinking about it, Link carefully took a hot pink post-it from Rhett’s desk and scribbled a small frown and <em>hey coworker, miss you </em>in black Sharpie. He stuck it to the bottom edge of Rhett’s iMac and headed back out to his room, blanket around his shoulders.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Link sat at home on day twenty-two of quarantine and <em>tap tap tapped</em> his feet on the concrete of their backyard. The sun was out, the grass was green and blowing, and his kids were finally at an age where they did not need or want to play with him anymore. He needed an excuse to leave.</p>
<p>“Christy? Baby? I’m going to go get some work done at the creative house, okay?” Link called up the stairs, pleased when he received a muffled affirmation in reply.</p>
<p>“Are you sure you should be leaving?” Lily appeared out of nowhere. </p>
<p>Link hesitated, but shrugged. “I’m in the only one going there.”</p>
<p>“Rhett’s not?” She quirked an eyebrow, accusatory.</p>
<p>“No,” Link lied. “Just me.”</p>
<p>He was at the house twenty minutes later; his mouth fell when he saw the blanket still folded neatly on the sofa. He grabbed a bag of baby carrots from the fridge, only to find them slimy and sour-smelling. With a frustrated sigh, he considered just going back home; although, unwilling to admit his true motivation for coming over, he became resolved to get some work done.</p>
<p>Upon sitting at his desk, he clicked his computer to life and immediately barked a laugh. His screensaver was a blown-up picture of him and Rhett at the state fair a decade back. He’d forgotten this picture existed, unused to seeing non-promotional photos of him and Rhett alone.</p>
<p>That time, they’d been the only ones to get funnel cakes the size of their heads. In the photo, Rhett has powdered sugar in his beard and Link’s hair is too long on the sides. They both look absolutely ecstatic. Link sat there and stared at the picture for a long time. He wondered where Rhett even had this picture stored to put it on Link’s computer.</p>
<p>On the desktop itself, Link then read the digital post-it.</p>
<p>
  <em>Gotcha! </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Wishing we could go to the fair. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>(or anywhere at all) </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>-Rhett</em>
</p>
<p>Link laughed. He hoped Rhett had Clorox wiped the keyboard after he touched it. But of course Rhett had, he wouldn’t put Link at risk. Link no longer felt like doing work. (As if that was ever the plan)</p>
<p>He could call Rhett, but that’s not their style. Calling meant <em>work</em>. They’d start talking about their company, their employees, and everything else Link didn’t want to think about after five pm on any given day.</p>
<p>He left the background up and leaned back in his chair, pen touching his lips as he thought about what to do next. Rhett was clearly coming here on a regular basis, and part of Link wanted to bring a pile of food and set up camp until the guy came sauntering in, but the more irrational part of him enjoyed the chase.</p>
<p>He went back to the cabinets and scoured, aware that Jenna had bought supplies for them to make cookies for a vlog that would now not happen anytime soon. He got the cookie mix, eggs, and milk out and preheated the oven. A new non-stick baking pan still had the cardboard sleeve on it.</p>
<p>He managed to make twenty cookies and left only five neatly saran wrapped on a plate in the kitchen. Bait.</p>
<p>The other 15 left with him a few hours later, to the surprise of his family.<br/>
<br/>
“Did you… make cookies?” Christy laughed and shook her head as she snuck one.  “Staying inside is making you go loopy.”</p>
<p>Link laughed and shrugged as the kids came out of the woodwork to get a cookie. All he could think about was Rhett finding them and smiling that dopey smile he does when he sees good food.</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>By the first weekend of April, Link was going stir crazy. He’d been working twice as hard as usual for half the content- and he couldn’t shake the feeling that the quality and quantity weren't even worth the effort.</p>
<p>He missed his best friend. He started taking long walks at the crack of dawn to get some semblance of exercise and some time alone. Instead of a walk one morning, he got into his nearly silent electric car and drove to their creative house.</p>
<p>He arrived just as the sun was beginning to rise. The house was bathed in a golden light, beautiful and warm. Link parked outside on the street, not planning to be here for any substantial length of time, and stretched out his limbs as he approached the door slowly.</p>
<p>He would play a record and sip hot tea for a while, soaking in the calm morning air. Maybe he would clean up the untouched plate of cookies- but the thought of that made a sad stone lodge into his stomach.</p>
<p>The door unlocked and Link stepped in, pacing over to the kitchen to see only one cookie left on the plate. It made him smile too wide, the stone unlodging and dissolving as he stands by the counter and stares at it.</p>
<p>“It’s not polite to take the last one,” Rhett’s voice came suddenly from behind Link, startling him.</p>
<p>“Shit, man,” Link spun around, one hand on his chest. He broke out in an uncontrollable grin. </p>
<p>“Hey,” Rhett smiled, stepping forward. “You’re here early.”</p>
<p>“If I let myself take my usual morning walk, I worry I would’a walked right to your house,” Link’s voice dropped to a whisper, his eyes desperately taking in every foot of the man in front of him.</p>
<p>“I’d have let you in, brother,” Rhett’s voice was fond.</p>
<p>“The virus,” Link half-suggested as let his feet take him a step closer.</p>
<p>“We’ve both only seen out families for three weeks, neither of us have it,” Rhett said.</p>
<p>“Screw it,” Link laughed, convinced, and stepped forward to drag Rhett into a bruising embrace.</p>
<p>They held each other in the low incandescent light of the kitchen. The drywall covered in cheap white paint, brush strokes visible, lacked pictures or expensive décor, but it felt like a clean slate now. Link linked his fingers behind Rhett’s back and leaned into him, encouraging them to move to the sofa.</p>
<p>Rhett lied down first and Link climbed over him, tucking himself against the side of the sofa. He laid his head on Rhett’s chest and inhaled slowly.</p>
<p>“I missed you,” Link said what he was thinking, a hand pressed flat against Rhett’s right pectoral.</p>
<p>Rhett hummed back at that and the vibration travelled through his body and into Link somehow. Link felt it deep in the bones of his hand and pressed harder, earning a calculated look from Rhett.</p>
<p>“You need to tread carefully here,” Rhett’s voice was pitched low, “You didn’t even wash those hands when you walked in.”</p>
<p>“If I wash my hands will you kiss me?” Link asked. He felt like a stranger to his own desires, sometimes, but the weeks before this keyed him up. He’s not ashamed to ask for what he wants right now. Rhett's given it to him before.</p>
<p>Rhett nodded and leaned closer to slot their mouths together, hand washing be damned. It was the first taste of dripping excess Link had experienced in weeks. He devoured it, this rare commodity. Christy would be pissed that he’d so willingly shared saliva, but he was only human. Rhett’s pull was so strong.</p>
<p>“Easy now,” Rhett laughed against Link’s lips as Link realized he had been fisting into Rhett’s t-shirt so tightly the fabric was taught.<br/>
<br/>
Link backed off, but only a little. He scattered kisses across Rhett’s jaw up to the bottoms of his ear lobes. Rhett’s hands found their purchase on Link’s waist as he tugged the smaller man close to him, eagerly relishing in the affection. </p>
<p>“You’re so big,” Link huffed as he slid his hands up Rhett’s shirt and tangled his fingers in the soft chest hair coating him.</p>
<p>“Link Neal,” Rhett giggled, “Are you <em>horny</em>? The world is in crisis and you're horny!”</p>
<p>Link rolled his eyes. “I’m just used to you, Rhett. I’m used to being around you. Gettin’ to get my hands on you every once in a while. It’s been, well, it’s been hard without you.”</p>
<p>“I know,” Rhett said softly, all traces of teasing gone from his voice. “I know. Me too.”</p>
<p>Link finished his conquest of Rhett’s chest and started to tug off Rhett’s shirt.</p>
<p>“It’s seven am. They’ll come looking for us,” Rhett warned in a hushed voice as he arrested Link's wrist.</p>
<p>“Let them look.”</p>
<p>“Jessie won’t be happy man, she won’t kiss me for a week,” Rhett held his shirt down.</p>
<p>“Then I better give you something to last a week,” Link teased. He leaned up to kiss Rhett again, sliding on top to straddle him.</p>
<p>They made out like that for a long while. The sun became bright and brilliant in the sky. Link’s phone buzzed repeatedly from the kitchen counter where he left it. Rhett smelled so good. Like the office, but without the relentless smell of coffee and printer ink. Link couldn’t get enough of him, squirming closer to get friction as Rhett caressed his face.</p>
<p>“We need to get back home,” Rhett murmured.</p>
<p>“I hate this,” Link groaned, reluctantly pulling himself off. He kept his hands on Rhett, unable to surrender. “I hate this.”</p>
<p>“I’d stay here all day if they wouldn’t be pissed.”</p>
<p>“I wish you lived in my home. I wish you were my family,” Link whined.</p>
<p>“I know,” Rhett said. “I know.”</p>
<p>“Can we do this again?” Link said.</p>
<p>Rhett sat up, his eyes were dark and sorry. Link nodded, understanding.</p>
<p>“Well, I’m still going to come over here occasionally,” Link said.</p>
<p>“I’ll come over occasionally too,” Rhett agreed.</p>
<p>It’s always been like this with them and boundaries. One of them tries to establish some sort of rule, some sort of <em>we should</em> or <em>we shouldn’t</em>, and the other pretends to wholeheartedly agree. They both act like there’s a boundary and then ignore it completely in favor of giving into what they want, in the end.</p>
<p>No wonder the quarantine wasn’t going well for them when it came to each other. It was easier when one of them was on vacation- that's for sure. There was an end to that. This had no certainty, and right now it felt infinite. </p>
<p>They kissed in the doorway like teenagers. Rhett’s firm hands left no room for Link to back away politely, so he stayed there, hands loosely by his sides like halyards. He wouldn’t back away until the wind tried to take him, not until the waves crashed over Rhett and carried him home.</p>
<p>Link’s phone vibrated fiercely against the kitchen counter once again.</p>
<p>“Go answer your phone, Link,” Rhett said after one last punctuating kiss. “And go check your room. I left you something before you showed up.”</p>
<p>Link watched him leave and then went to pick up his phone. Christy had called only once, as had Jenna, but the other notifications were from social media. He slid the phone into his pocket and walked into his room, eyes lighting up as he spied an envelope on his desk.</p>
<p>The envelope had a scratchy heart on it next to Link’s name. Link smiled and opened it to find a stack of photos of the two of them, like the one Rhett had changed his desktop to.  Link tucked the stack back into the envelope.</p>
<p>He’d save those for when things got worse.</p>
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